The frames are an important method for presenting information. An example is the HTML standard, wherein nearly all the browser implementations support frames. A frame is a design solution used for example in web browsers that allows the web page designer to split the web browser view or window into several areas, each of which can independently show the content of a specific HTML page. This design solution is often used to define permanent areas on the top or at the left side of the view/window for navigational elements, such as links, so that browsing of the web page content can be centralized to one main frame. According to the HTML language, the web page designer can define the size of the frames either in percentages of the size of the whole view or window, or in a number of pixels. Frames are usually used such that one frame displays the navigational information (hyperlinks). This frame is usually on the upper or left side of the page. In the right hand side there is a bigger frame, which contains the actual information of the page. Most conventional browsers, Netscape™ and Internet Explorer™, do not set the active frame automatically, but the user has to select a frame to activate it.
In the recent time the frame support has also been applied to browsers of mobile devices. Web pages that have been designed for large PC screens are often cumbersome in devices with small screens. Reading a web page on a small display may require many scrolling input operations. In mobile devices the selection of an active frame is not as easy as in desktop computers. Thus, the usability of the browser would increase if the active frame were selected automatically. Pages with frames are particularly difficult to handle in small screen devices, as each frame needs to be scrolled separately, and if the frames do not fit to a small display, the view is full of small, framed areas with tiny scroll bars.
A standard web browser typically focuses (i.e. selects as active) by default on the top-left frame. Therefore, if the user tries to scroll the pages with scroll keys, the top-left frame of the page starts scrolling. However, this frame usually shows a small HTML page with a couple of links, and scrolling does not provide any benefit to the user. Another approach used for example in the browser of the Nokia Communicator is to automatically select the biggest frame as the active frame.
In order to scroll through the main content of a framed page, the user has to find out which is the frame that contains most interesting content, which is not very easy to find out as all of the frames are small, and the user has to move the focus to that frame. Up to now, there is no easy shortcut for moving the focus from one frame to another, such as with a touch screen or mouse oriented device, the user needs to tap the right frame in order to scroll it. This makes navigation slow and inefficient.
All the above approaches for setting a focus on a certain frame of received multi-frame data have in common that they are not suitable for the use with mobile terminal devices as mobile phones, or handheld computers due to the small displays or screens used in these portable devices.
It is therefore desirable to have a method and a device to simplify the use of frame based information in a mobile terminal based environment without the restrictions caused by reduced display sizes and reduced user input interfaces.
It is further desirable to have a browser architecture that is capable of reducing these problems.